As the former capital of East Island, compared with other big cities of this country, Zhongjing in the inland was undoubtedly the most unremarkable one.
It may be a little incorrect to describe it as unremarkable, but compared with cities such as Dongdu, Ninghu, Juban, and Bingang, Zhongjing did look less dazzling. In Zhongjing, a city with an ancient atmosphere, everything looked normal, with no drawbacks or advantages.
When ordinary people spoke of Zhongjing, they would inevitably refer to words like ancient, profound, and historical.
In the Dark World, however, there was only one word to describe Zhongjing.
Safe.
Throughout East Island, Zhongjing was arguably one of the safest cities and was even second only to Dongdu, where the Divine Wind Force stationed.
Wuji Palace, the largest Martial Arts holy land in the entire East Island, was located in Zhongjing.
East Island was a country with an extremely high crime rate. However, since the establishment of Wuji Palace, Zhongjing had been the place with the fewest serious cases in this country. Even Dongdu paled in comparison with it in this regard. Over the past few years, untold masters and elites of the Dark World had entered the city and then were killed before they could act. The Invincible Realm grandmaster of Wuji Palace killed every one of them with a single strike. In just a few years, he directly turned the entire Zhongjing into his headquarters, and his roots went deep into every street and lane of this city.
It was no exaggeration to say that Wuji Palace’s sphere of influence covered every corner of Zhongjing. Tianhai Wuji—Wuji Sword Master, was the patron saint of the entire Zhongjing.
But when the guardian, also the sharpest sword of East Island, was absent, most of the brilliance of Wuji Palace seemed to have disappeared.
This seemed to be an inevitable phenomenon.
In East Island, no one dared to deny the power of Wuji Palace, but much of this power was built on, or at least centered around, one man named Tianhai Wuji. The newly rising Wuji Palace had strong strength, but its cultural resources were seriously insufficient. It had not formed a complete system and inheritance. In many cases, it was Tianhai Wuji who supported the absolutely brilliant appearance of Wuji Palace.
When Tianhai Wuji was not in Zhongjing, Wuji Palace still flourished. But as the wind rose, without a pillar, Wuji Palace suddenly felt like crumbling in the wind and rain.
June 12th.
Shi Menfeng, the Vice Palace Master of Wuji Palace, who was not strong as an individual but controlled most of the commercial power of Wuji Palace, died in his office.
His throat was cut off by a knife.
Twelve people, including Shi Menfeng’s secretary, a.s.sistant, driver and bodyguards, were killed in two minutes, and all of them could not even send a message before death.
Three hours after Shi Menfeng died, Wuji Palace received the news of the Vice Palace Master’s death and took action as soon as possible. Then in five hours, it locked the murderer in Zhongjing.
White Bird and Black Dolphin, the two Great Guardians of Wuji Palace, led the elites of the palace to attack and round up the murderer at the same time in the western suburb of Zhongjing.
The fierce fighting lasted less than half an hour, and most of the streets were reduced to ruins. More than half of the 200 elites were either killed or wounded. Furthermore, Guardian Black Dolphin, an expert who had entered the stabilization phase of the Thunder-shocking Realm, was killed on the spot.
The murderer went away.
Moreover, he escaped unscathed.
June 13th.
Guardian White Bird of Wuji Palace died in pursuit of the murderer.
The murderer disappeared.
In less than eight hours, Wuji Palace once again locked the murderer’s whereabouts.
Heavenly Hound, the second master and left advisor of Wuji Palace, acted in person. Nearly three hundred elites came to his aid. The whole Zhongjing seemed to be in a chaotic battle rhythm with this encirclement and suppression.
The two sides fought all the way from Sanjūsangen-dō to Zhongjing Tower and drew an exaggerated battle line for tens of kilometers across the city. The murderer, who had been all alone, gradually had supporters. One side chased and the other escaped, causing many casualties. They fought all the way from the downtown of Zhongjing to the mountain forest at the junction of Zhongjing and Juban.
Most of the elites of Wuji Palace were either killed or wounded.
And the killer had few followers.
But the pursuit, which was doomed to continue until one side was eliminated, didn’t stop and went on.
Early in the morning of June 15th.
It was already midnight.
With the bright moonlight falling in the forest, the whole world seemed to be tranquil.
Under the thick old tree, Gu Hanshan, the young master of Kunlun City, silently nibbled the bread in his hand and stared at the map of East Island in front of him calmly and attentively.
“Young master, after walking through this forest, in about thirty kilometers, we will enter the territory of Juban. When the time comes, shall we look for a chance to go back to Dongdu and a.s.semble with the main force?”
A middle-aged man stared warily into the night and asked softly. There was undisguised anxiety in his eyes.
“I’m afraid it’s not that easy.”
Gu Hanshan shook his head. His face was pale and it seemed that he was severely injured. After several days of continuous fighting, two of the Thunder-shocking Realm experts died at his hands. Although he was merely at the peak of the Fire-flaming Realm, he was brilliant in battles. But in the end, Heavenly Hound, the left advisor of Wuji Palace, thoroughly suppressed this young Heavenly Son from Zhongzhou State. He was a half step to Invincible Realm, so Gu Hanshan was simply no match for him.
Gu Hanshan nibbled the bread and said placidly, “Presently, our ident.i.ties have been revealed and the entire East Island is in chaos. Anyway, Wuji Palace won’t let us go back to Dongdu and gather with the main force. There’s definitely no way for us to get to Dongdu. Even if there is a way, it is probably a trap.”
The middle-aged man clenched his teeth and said nothing. After days of pursuit, their supplies were depleted and all communication tools were completely destroyed. Now they were trapped in the mountains, completely out of contact with the outside world. To make matters worse, a master that was a half step to the Invincible Realm was pursuing them behind. They only had a few men left and were really in limbo.
In an oppressive silence, a few figures quickly and secretly ran through the woods and came to the two.
“Young Master Gu, the encirclement is growing tighter and tighter. The west is now relatively loose. After all, the reaction of Juban is a bit slow and we can break through to the west.”
“To the west?”
Gu Hanshan looked at these people thoughtfully.
These people were the elites, or members of the Snowdance Corps, who first sneaked into East Island from Zhongzhou State. After continuous fighting and retreat during these days, only less than one-tenth of the elite team of nearly two hundred people were left, but their morale was still high.
“To the west.”
The elite from Zhongzhou State who was responsible for scouting the surrounding terrain nodded. “We should enter Juban first and then arrive at Changdao or Yamaguchi Prefecture through Ninghu and Toyama.”
“Aren’t we getting farther and farther away from Dongdu?”
The middle-aged man beside Gu Hanshan frowned slightly.
“There is no other way. In the away game, the initiative is not in our hands. Now the situation is critical and we can only play it by ear.”
Gu Hanshan shook his head and stood up, saying without hesitation, “Then break through to the west.”
“To the west? It’s a good plan, but can you walk away?”
A cold voice suddenly sounded in the woods tens of meters away.
In the woods, a sharp and bright arc flickered slightly, and a figure appeared directly in the darkness. Because of the distance, no one could see his appearance clearly. They could only dimly make out his white robe.
The white robe in Gu Hanshan’s sight seemed to flutter slightly. In a flash, the bodies of the two outermost men around him directly exploded into a great deal of flesh and blood, and the blood fog floated in the mountain forest. Then the white robe directly appeared in front of Gu Hanshan.
It was Heavenly Hound, the left advisor of Wuji Palace!
When Tianhai Wuji, the Master of Wuji Palace was away, this expert, who was a half step to Invincible Realm, was arguably the best expert in Wuji Palace!
The air around them was slightly distorted.
Gu Hanshan, who had been silent, suddenly took a step forward.
Around him, countless rays of light appeared in a twinkling.
They were the most condensed firelight. The hot temperature was condensed into a point and spread into a line, as if there were a million lasers in the air all at once, cutting everything apart.
Heavenly Hound consciously took half a step back.
At the same time, Gu Hanshan had pulled several of his peripheral Zhongzhou elites behind him.
“You go first.”
With his eyes fixed on Heavenly Hound in front of him, he commanded in a plain voice.
“Young master!”
“Young Master Gu!”
Behind Gu Hanshan, the facial expressions of the several surviving Zhongzhou elites changed at the same time.
“Cut the c.r.a.p, go first! Take the brothers from the neighborhood who haven’t come back.”
Gu Hanshan frowned and added coldly, “It’s an order! Go!”
The middle-aged man who belonged to Kunlun City gritted his teeth and was still hesitating, however, the laser beams around Gu Hanshan turned sharply. Under the blazing temperature, a huge tree beside him was swept by a laser beam. As a result, the whole trunk collapsed instantly, and the incision was smooth. The laser beams still rotated, scanning the several nearby Zhongzhou elites without a break.
The middle-aged man’s expression changed and he took a step back subconsciously. Then without hesitation, he turned and walked away.
Gu Hanshan stood where he was, without moving. This Heavenly Son from Zhongzhou State was equally famous as w.a.n.g Shengxiao, the heir of the w.a.n.g family of Beihai. He was an ordinary looking man, but at the moment, there was a kind of unspeakable radiance and fighting desire about him.
“You’re going to die here.”
Heavenly Hound looked at Gu Hanshan seriously and said in a playful tone, “You could have lived a little longer. Is it worth sacrificing yourself for a few nonent.i.ties?”
This super master, who was among the best of experts in the entire East Island, had been famous for nearly two decades. But at the age of nearly fifty, he was dressed in a white robe, and his face looked like that of a young man about thirty years old, handsome and bewitching. Against the backdrop of a bright moon, he seemed as handsome as a jade tree in the wind. Looking at Gu Hanshan, whose fighting desire kept soaring, he squinted his seductive eyes, which looked cold yet soft, and said in a demagogic tone, “If you sacrifice them, you can live at least two more days. That’s a pretty good result, isn’t it?”
The few Zhongzhou elites behind Gu Hanshan went further and further.
Gu Hanshan stood still and said calmly, “I can bleed for Zhongzhou State and ask others to bleed for Zhongzhou State as well, but I have no right to ask others to bleed for me.”
He spoke very slowly, but Heavenly Hound did not seem to mind the measure he deliberately took to buy time. Heavenly Hound said thoughtfully, “Oh? But your ident.i.ty…”
“My ident.i.ty is a warrior.”
Gu Hanshan suddenly smiled. The corners of his mouth were visibly lifted, and his smile was firm and determined. “Even if I become the G.o.d of War in Zhongzhou State one day, I’m the strongest warrior in Zhongzhou State.”
He was surrounded by more and more laser beams that were made of flames. They spun faster and faster, and the whole forest became hot.
Heavenly Hound nodded and said, “In that case…”
“Then go to h.e.l.l!”
Gu Hanshan finished the words for him.
In the dark woods, the fire suddenly shot up into the sky.
A mult.i.tude of beams of light that surrounded him suddenly blossomed like flowers. Beam after beam of light was dancing wildly in the sudden burst of lightning, sweeping everything away.
There was already a curtain of lightning in front of Heavenly Hound. The dark blue arcs twined around each other and then spread, becoming thicker and thicker. A large number of beams swept across the curtain, making countless sparks. The sparks flew and burned the forest. The beams of light around Gu Hanshan grew fainter and fainter.
“The Eighth Supreme Sword Move?”
Heavenly Hound whispered, laughing playfully, “You’re too weak.”
“Boom!”
As he spoke, the curtain of lightning in front of him immediately spread and countless arcs weaved through the air. Within a radius of tens of meters, all the trees burst open. Moreover, the lightning entangled itself with fire and they then spread. In an instant, the dark woods nearby shone as bright as day.
The beams of light around Gu Hanshan had almost completely disappeared. There was only a small amount of fire around him, pulling his body back.
His expression was still calm. With his body flying back, like a tide, the mighty sword intent buffeted Heavenly Hound’s body. After a brief period of dimness, a few flashes of fire suddenly became raging. With the retreat of his body, a surging wave of fire that was tens of meters long suddenly appeared in the mountains.
He moved backwards.
The raging fire, however, moved forwards.
A wave of fire shot tens of meters into the air. For a time, the mountains and the night seemed to have completely disappeared, and all eyes were occupied by the wild flames.
The dark blue lightning flashed away.
Undeterred, Heavenly Hound dashed single-handedly into the wave of fire that stretched for tens of meters, raising his hand and grabbing Gu Hanshan’s neck directly.
Clouds and the wind surged above the mountain forest, and a flash of lightning covering hundreds of meters fell without warning. From above down, within the scope of the lightning, all the mountains were split into dust in an instant, and the raging fire on the ground was suppressed in the blink of an eye. In the midst of the raging fire, Gu Hanshan’s figure became clear once again.
Heavenly Hound was within two meters of Gu Hanshan.
“It’s over.”
His voice was cold and authoritative. But as he exerted all his strength to throw a blow, there seemed to be a wonderfully disguised weakness in the tone of his voice.
He held out his palms. As the lightning faded, he grabbed Gu Hanshan by the neck.
Before his smile had even begun to spread from the corners of his mouth, a kind of deadly danger suddenly enveloped him. That was the instinct of a super master in the face of death, keen and precise.
A chill came over Heavenly Hound. Before he could react, Gu Hanshan, who was strangled by him, had snapped at him, “Kill!”
The roar sounded hoa.r.s.e and harsh because of the strangulation. With death-defying determination, Gu Hanshan straightened up and gave it his best shot.
For a moment, the flames in the air, which were about to go out, suddenly surged. In the blink of an eye, the flames that could burn everything covered the visible sky, and the air surged and twisted wildly. There seemed to be ice in the midst of the flames. The ice flashed and reflected tiny arcs of lightning.
In Heavenly Hound’s terrified eyes, Gu Hanshan seemed to burst forth all that he had, including his power and combat capability!
Gu Hanshan’s strength levelled up from the Qi-controlling Realm to the Ice-condensing Realm and then the Fire-flaming Realm… He finally managed to touch the threshold of the Thunder-shocking Realm.
Heavenly Hound unconsciously tried to exert force with his palms to break Gu Hanshan’s neck, but his body floated suddenly. Worst of all, even his palms were limp and powerless.
“Vacuum state?!”
“Is this a domain?!”
“The domain of an Invincible Realm expert?!”
A flash of lightning flashed through Heavenly Hound’s mind. At this moment, he suddenly realized the origin, as well as the capital, of the young Heavenly Son in Zhongzhou State before him.
To form a void by oneself within a hundred meters and become matchless in the world!
This was the domain of the Invincible Realm and also one of the paths that led to the Invincible Realm.
Today, most of the Invincible Realm masters took the Martial Arts path that required them to form the void by their own.
And on this path, Kunlun City in Zhongzhou State was known as the first in the world!
This may not mean that Kunlun City’s domains were the strongest, but they were definitely among the strongest ones.
And that was because they had two domains.
One was the pseudo domain. It was by virtue of this pseudo domain that Kunlun City could perfect their real strongest unique skill and could even claim to be the best in the world.
This pseudo domain, at least in theory, could only be touched after one reached the Thunder-shocking Realm.
Nevertheless, Gu Hanshan was different.
Because he had the real, perfect Heavenly King Heart.
The Heavenly King Heart was not just about making the will strong. It endowed the owner with a sharp combat instinct and the ability to fight with less cost than others, which were sufficient enough to enable Gu Hanshan to use the pseudo domain directly when he was at the Fire-flaming Realm.
Although Gu Hanshan could barely make this and the process could only last for a moment, it was enough for him to get any result he wanted.
With frightened eyes, Heavenly Hound floated eerily in the air. His mouth was open, as if he was saying “no”, but he made no sound.
Above the sky, the flames, ice, arcs, and the twisted air all disappeared.
Void.
Only the void was left!
This was the pseudo domain of Kunlun City.
The ninth type of Ten Skills of True Martial Arts.
The Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se!